July 25, 2011

Whoa! Summer is almost ending! After two months-silence I think I should update you guys…

We sold our old apartment!! (yay, fantastic!)

And at the moment we are (still) in this quest to find a new home for us… we must leave this place before July ends… or in other words this week . *sigh*

(Wish us luck? Yes?) ♡

…

It has been very hot around here lately… and I am living in this sea of moving boxes. Sorting things, packing and getting crazy O_O.

Ah well… nothing beats the heat and the heavy moods like a good and delicious cone/bowl/*whole batch* of ice cream right? :) Specially when the ice cream is self made and easy to prepare…

I made two types of ice cream for our monthly Twitter Food Party in July. The “party” happens every month on its last Monday and is organized by a group of friends on twitter. Everyone can participate! If you have a twitter account, just post a picture of the month theme dish using the hash tags #twitterfoodparty and #twittericecreamparty. Very simple and without any stress ^__^.

As we are having this dysfunctional life, I can’t spend as much time in the kitchen as I wished (and love) to. To prepare the ice creams I used two recipes from the ice cream bible “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz (If you don’t have it yet and you are super interested about making your own frozen delights, this cookbook is the best!). Two Philadelphia-Style ice creams = no eggs, no custard, less work (score!)

Vanilla Ice cream, Philadelphia-Style

makes about 1L

2 cups heavy cream (750ml)

¾ cup sugar (150g)

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

¾ tsp. vanilla extract (I used NoMU vanilla paste)

Pour 250ml of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add the remaining cream and the vanilla extract.

Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (I left it overnight)

When ready to churn, remove the vanilla pod (reserve the bean for another use), then freeze the mixture in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until it’s completely melted, then whisk in the milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 seconds, until very smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then churn it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

I let my 4yo daughter decorate her portion with some sprinkles. Isn’t this cute? She put chocolate crispies on the top of the chocolate ice cream and hundreds and thousands sprinkles over the vanilla one ^_^.

From both ice creams, they loved the chocolate one the most. Wah, they really enjoy dark chocolate, just like their mama!

Happy Summer everyone! Wish you all a great time and lots of ice cream :). Hope to start blogging again when we settle down ;), see you then!

This post was written by karaimame exclusively for Acquiring Taste. All writing, images and other materials in this blog remain the property of Acquiring Taste and cannot be used without permission.